subject they had talked upon last time, and then old Heston. brought out the Bible and showed him the marked words.

"I thought, sir, that maybe they have something to do with the service you belong to," he said.

"Surely they have. Servants of God, soldiers of His blessed Son-that is what we should be, my friend. I will find you the place where the Captain gives His standing orders, and also the place where one of the best of His soldiers writes of the armour we should wear, and the weapons we should use."

He turned to the chapters in St. Matthew's Gospel which give the "Sermon on the Mount," and laid within the pages a spray of flowering grass to mark the place. Then he found the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, and beginning at the tenth verse read aloud what St. Paul says there to the ancient Christians about the soul's warfare. He read of the girdle of truth, of the breastplate of righteousness, the standing-ground of the Gospel of Peace, of the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and the safeguard of prayer.

As he read, old Heston's eyes filled with tears.

"Listen, Annie," he said, "you listen, child, and mind where you will find the words again. You must try to serve for the wages of life-to follow the King. As for me, I doubt I am too old to be enlisting in that army now; my best days are gone, and I'm but a poor maimed wreck of a man to offer for the service of God."

Then the young man spoke very gently of the lovingkindness of the Lord, and of how He accepted all who turned to throw themselves at His feet; and then he spoke of the way in which the King covered His servants' weakness and shortcomings with His own abundant righteousness.

Heston listened, but his brow was very sad.

Many times the stranger came stepping down the lane, and over and over again he told the story of the Gospel of Peace. Over and over again he read our Saviour's words of

Reader! have you yet found a "life-work ?" I mean a life-work in which you may honour the Master, and do good to poor perishing souls? If not, look about at once for it; ask of God guidance and wisdom; and then go to work in the vineyard, ere the night of death draws on, when no man can work. There is neither work nor device found in the grave, whither we all are hastening. Those who would serve the Lord-and what follower of His would not serve Him?-must arise and do it now. Many avenues of usefulness are open to earnest seekers after opportunities of doing good. Angels might well envy us, poor human creatures, these grand opportunities; for while they fly in the midst of heaven, and minister before the Majesty on high, they cannot speak the Word of Life to one poor perishing sinner, or warn one to "flee from the wrath to come.' This high privilege belongs to us alone, who love the Lord, and by using it we become "co-workers with God."

But perhaps you are not yet saved yourself. In that case, your first duty is to make your own calling and election sure; to flee yourself to the refuge set before you. If you do not this, you cannot consistently point others to Jesus; for if you do, you will be like those carpenters who assisted Noah to build the ark, and then perished miserably in the waters of the flood. First see to it that you are saved yourself; then seek to do some work on the earth which shall glorify and honour Him who saved you.

E. R. P.

B

"The Writing of God.”

UT have you no writing for it ?"

"No, sir, that's the misfortune. My landlord's late father and my poor husband were such old

friends, that it was just settled between them by word of mouth that so long as we lived we should have this cottage at the same rent. Who would have thought

as the work of inspired writers, till at length those who could not think for themselves had come to look upon it as a sacred volume.

A year before old Clements died he received into his house as lodger a young man, who was at once assailed with the stock sceptical arguments. The young man appeared to be convinced, and professed to reject the gospel and hail unbelief as a substitute. At the same time the idea of death filled him with horror, and he asked Clements: "How shall you get on at death ?"

Now this subject happened to be one of the things about which the old man frequently boasted, and his pride was touched in a tender place.

"My boy," he answered, "if you are with me in the hour of death you will see me 'die like a brick.'

Not long after this boast the time of sifting and testing came: Clements was taken ill, and his end was seen to be approaching. If there were anything supporting in atheism let it now be proved. In the day of health a seemingly firm resolve had been made to meet the last enemy courageously; the time had now arrived to put the strength of this resolution to the test.

The old man sorely needed comforting support; for, as he lay upon his bed weak and helpless, he seemed to lack all that was cheering, both as regards this world and the next. Death was at the door: how would Clements meet him?

Arguments and principles which had fed self-conceit int the day of strength now utterly failed to bring relief to the convicted and terror-stricken soul. Through wakeful nights and days of pain old Clements lay thinking of his sad state, resolving, if possible, to pass away from this world without letting his fears be known to those about him. But he found this impossible, and at length the agony of his heart drove him to exclaim to his young lodger: "I can't die like this." What! not after all his boastings and professions? not after having so often declared that he would consistently

close his long life by "dying like a brick?" No; the language of heart and tongue was: "I can't die like this."

At his request a minister of the gospel was sent for, and when he entered the chamber Clements cried out : Oh, sir, I am so glad to see you; I was afraid you would not come. Can you forgive me, sir, the many hard things I have often said about you? You know I have mocked you, and called you the 'old Gospel grinder,' and done all I could to hinder your work. Will you forgive me, sir, before I die?"

The visitor at once expressed his forgiveness, and added that God, too, was ready to forgive, if asked from the heart to do so.

"I can't believe it; indeed I can't," sobbed the poor man. "I am like a vessel tossed about on the sea without an anchor." He had been a sailor in younger days, and hence understood well the telling simile of an anchorless ship.

The minister spoke of the gift of Christ and His allatoning sacrifice; but found that in unfolding the gospel it was necessary to begin at the very beginning; for, like thousands of other professed unbelievers, Clements had rejected the gospel without studying it, and really understood next to nothing of the plan of salvation as therein explained.

Clements listened attentively as his visitor explained how God's holy law had been broken, and how the curse was removed by the death of Christ. But it was long before he was able to grasp the idea that one so long a reviler and despiser of God could at last find forgiveness.

"What good news! if it were only for me," he exclaimed, as the tears coursed down his withered cheeks.

"It is for you; it is such as you that Jesus died to save. Hear His own words: 'I am not come to call the righteous, out sinners to repentance.'

Faithfully and earnestly did this servant of God preach the gospel to the dying sinner, and eagerly did the poor

man drink in each word; and at length, some little time before he breathed his last—for he lingered between life and death for a long time-he thankfully accepted the offer of pardon held out to him, and at last found that peace which he might in vain have sought for among the arguments and sophistries of infidelity.

The fearful agony of mind which led him at first to cry, "I can't die like this," was exchanged for the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and which enabled this poor sinner to murmur at the last: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."

While we can but rejoice when we hear of an instance of a man being brought to the Saviour, as it were, at the eleventh hour, and while we do not doubt Christ's willingness to save the most hardened sinner who cries for mercy, even from the bed of death, we would solemnly and earnestly urge the importance of seeking God at once. Let nothing induce a man to delay in a matter so important. Now is the day of salvation. To-morrow, for all we know, may be too late. We may never lie upon a sick bed, we may be struck down by sudden death; who can tell? And even if we have a lengthened illness before our decease, we may not be able then to repent. We would also urge all, before accepting sceptical or infidel opinions, to study prayerfully and seriously the Word of God, feeling sure of this, that he who does so will be helped by the Holy Spirit to understand what he reads, and will find peace, and pardon for all his sins through the finished work of Jesus Christ. The man who lives in faith on the Son of God, when death comes, will not be obliged to cry, "I can't die like this."

G. H. P.